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Create your first project

This guide follows the intended desktop workflow. You will create a short visual-first explanation, resolve its foundational decisions, and render a local preview.

Before you begin

Section titled “Before you begin”
  • Install and start Matemium.
  • Wait until the application reports that the engine is connected.
  • AI assistance is optional, but agent-driven authoring requires a configured provider or compatible local model.

1. Create the project

Section titled “1. Create the project”
  1. Open the Projects view.
  2. Choose New project.
  3. Give it a durable, descriptive name such as binary_search.
  4. Open the newly created workspace.

Use a project name that can also work as a folder name. Prefer lowercase words separated by underscores.

2. Describe the intended understanding

Section titled “2. Describe the intended understanding”

Open Brief → Description and describe:

  • The question the explanation should answer
  • The intended audience
  • What viewers should understand by the end
  • Important visual relationships
  • Any constraints on duration, tone, or format

Example:

# Binary search


Explain why binary search can eliminate half of a sorted list after every
comparison. The audience understands arrays but has not studied algorithmic
complexity. Use a portrait visual-first film with eight numbered cells and keep
discarded regions visible but subdued.

Describe the outcome rather than dictating every animation. The roadmap and authoring stages exist to settle implementation details.

3. Resolve the project passport

Section titled “3. Resolve the project passport”

The passport stores rare-changing production decisions. Confirm:

  • Audience and communication style
  • Output orientation
  • Production path
  • Narration expectations
  • Any subject-specific constraints

For this first project, choose Visual-first. It reaches a render with the fewest external dependencies.

4. Review the roadmap

Section titled “4. Review the roadmap”

Open Roadmap. Matemium separates shared foundation work from the selected production branch.

Typical visual-first phases include:

  1. Project creation
  2. Project description
  3. Passport and production path
  4. Tape content
  5. Orchestration
  6. Scene authoring
  7. Render and visual repair
  8. Delivery

The current phase should explain what decision or artifact is needed next.

5. Work with the agent

Section titled “5. Work with the agent”

Ask the agent to continue the current phase. Prefer answers that describe intent:

Compare the middle value first, then dim the eliminated half without removing it. Keep the target visible above the array.

Review every proposed decision. Use Decide for me only when the choice is genuinely unimportant to you.

6. Inspect the generated scene

Section titled “6. Inspect the generated scene”

Open scenes.py. A healthy project normally has:

  • Imports from canvas
  • A CanvasBuilder
  • One or more tapes
  • Content and timeline operations
  • A CanvasScene subclass
  • A final super().__init__(dsl=builder.build(), **kwargs)

You do not need to understand every line before producing the first preview.

7. Render a preview

Section titled “7. Render a preview”
  1. Select the scene.
  2. Choose a preview or low-quality render where available.
  3. Watch the progress panel.
  4. Open the result in the output viewer.

Inspect:

  • Text clipping
  • Overlapping elements
  • Unreadable pacing
  • Camera movement
  • Incorrect or unsupported subject content

8. Repair and render again

Section titled “8. Repair and render again”

Report concrete visual evidence to the agent:

The explanation below the array clips at the right edge after the second comparison. Keep the text within the portrait safe area.

Render again after applying the correction. Visual repair is part of the normal production journey, not an exceptional failure.

Next

Section titled “Next”